Batboard

I was approached by a guy that I work with to install strobes in the head and tail-lights of his 2004 Dodge Ram. I have never done this and wanted find out any tips for doing this. I am just afriad of breaking the headlight when drilling through it. Any info greatly appreciated.

Strobes in the headlights generally suck, and are about worthless when the headlights are turned on.

Look at installing the front strobes in cornering lamps/turn signals or fog lights. I don't have any experience with Dodge trucks, so I can't give you tons of advice, but wig-wags are the right way to turn the headlights into emergency lighting.

An LE friend of mine has a police-package Intrepid with covert lighting. He removed the fog lamp bulbs (which face directly forward, down low, clear lens/projector-type reflector) and fashioned a mount to retain a typical strobe tube. Since the strobe is in the center of the reflector[/quote], those things are *bright*! At distance, they're clearly visible in addition to the wig-wags.

Just my $.02...

I've done several Rams and they are easy. Put 'em in the headlights and the backup or tail lights.

I used the sound-Off 110W power supply and with the headlights on, you can see them just fine. I'm quite sure that using a cheap POS Gall's 40 watt system won't be seen with the headlights on, but again, Gall's equipment (or ANY 40 watt system) is even for your lawnmower.

Stay away from puttin them in the new "Clear Lensed" non fluted head lights. for one thing they cost are expensive if you if u break them and they are way to deep for Stropes to work good turn signals are your best bet. or a set of grill Strobes/leds.

the last head lights i did was in a 2001 chevy k2500HD the lighst were not that deep and had a Fluted lens plus they were on a plow truck so when the plow was on head lights on the truck were off.

if he can use wig-wags go that way

Well, first of all, make sure its a composite headlight and not glass!

The problem with most headlights is that they are too large for effective warning with the hide-a-way style tubes. Smaller the refelector, the better output you will get. I recently did a few newer F250's with amber strobes in clear turn signals. Came out with a nice deep amber color with a 50 watt supply. I did old older F250 where I had to go into the headlights, but you got a not-as-bright washed out amber with a 90 watt supply.

Even my old S10, I threw a couple of blue strobes in the headlights with a 180 watt supply. Yeah, you knew that they were on, you could see them with or without the headlights on, but didn't have a real noticable "impact" if you needed to go somewhere.

Same thing goes with taillights. Some will look better than others. Its all in how the car manufacture designed the assembly. Bigger IS better for hideaway powersupply's. Don't go under 90 watts, and don't use the soft plug in ones with any power supply over 50 watts. Use the flange mount.

What's the best place to mount a power supply, and what lengths due the cables come in?

1)anywhere you have convenient access to bury a powersupply is a good place....behind seat backs or under them is where ive always gone.

2) precut cables will usually come in 10 - 25 ft, in 5 ft increments...and those are bigname makers....or some places will just hack off cable off a roll and let you make your own...

What i do seein how i do a few, is i order tubes seperate. and get 6 conducter strobe cable from Whelen. then u only run one cable. run the cabe to one side make a loop go to the other slide. slice open the cable. cut out the 3 wires u need tape the cable back up. and go to the other side and use the other 3 make shure to mark what side the p/s when u make the loop PM for more info

6 conductor slicing and looming???

Sounds like too much work. I can run 2 cables and have them installed in the time you play around with 6 conductor cables, slicing, looming and such. Besides....you will now have to add the lost EMI ground shield to the "sliced" side to prevent EMI intrusion into vehicle electronics.

That sounds like the shop that Ive seen use old lightbar cables to wire the whole car. In the front they would use 3 wires butt on the strobe tubes use 2 wires for the speaker 1 wire to turn on the headlight flasher and the other 3 for the oposite strobe tube. They did the same for the back end of the car. The ran an 4G to a big ass selenoid then to a dozen relays screwed to a board in the passenger side trunk and ran a 3rd cable to the switches or a TM-4 to turn this mess on...

you get a better angle of warning power in the corner lamps vs the headlights though... and your headlight housing remains water tight, doesnt sweat.

For the installs that I do I generally go this way:

Wig Wags (can't beat them)
Traffic Backers / flashers (brake light against backup light)
strobes in the front corners
strobes in the rear backup lights / brake lights /
additional heads on the rear deck

Generally if I put in traffic backers, I'll put the strobes in the backup lights to add more warning power (if they fit).

Corners are your best bet in general. They will give the most viewable warning per flash, but not all give the desired color due to the lens or that the housing just isn't big enough to dissipate the heat or even fit the strobe tube in. In that case I usually recomend some type of grill lights instead of the corners.

The two biggest jobs (which really aint that big compared to some setups that I've seen) I've done consisted of this:

2000 Crown Vic:
- 1x clear strobe in both front corners (can't beat the Vic's for the corner lenses)
-2x blue grill lights
-wig wags
-traffic backers
-1x clear strobe in each backup lamp housing
-2x additional outputs on the rear deck for self contained removable strobes
-1x additional output for a dash light

97 Suburban:
-1x clear strobe in each front turn signal / marker housing
-1x blue strobe in each front turn signal / marker housing
-wig wags
-traffic backers
-2x rear headliner blue linear strobes

Now on the suburban, the corner markers aren't big enough to fit a strobe tube in, and they're the wrong color as well, so I just doubled up in the front marker lights. There are already 2x segmented reflectors in each and the lenses are clear so it was very convienent and achieved the desired effect.

I've done installs with the strobe tubes in the headlights (only when insisted by the vehicle owner that they did not want to install wig wags but wanted strobes in the headlights ), and while they do throw light durring the day, they just aren't noticable enough when you turn the headlights on.

Every system that I've done so far has been in a PV that the owner doesn't want to know it's there unless he/ she has to use it, so that complicates things as well (no big honking well lit switches glaring at you on the dash or in a fancy console). I've found that making the switching as simple as possible saves a lot of headaches for the user as well as me installing it. A "front" and a "rear" switch seem to be the best setup (at least for the types I generally do installs for).

Kurt

It would be most interesting to climb into an unassuming vehicle and bump a switch accidentally and have the car light up like a christmas tree...

Jim -

I have used what Kit is talking about. They have the 6 wire cable that was used with the remote dual dashmisers. They wye into two connectors at both ends. One cable going to the p/s, and you can you can just run two lights heads off the other end as is if close enough, or run it from a central location to the two heads if they are too far apart.

So what's the recommendation for power supplies?

No less than 50 (max of 4 outlets), pref 90 watts or higher. I personally use Whelen and never have had a problem. I still have a working double flash p/s that works like day one.

I alway use a bare minimum watts per head is 15. I try for at least 20 when at all possible.

Whelen's ISP series power supplies are awsome but pricy. The CSP690 is 6 outlets, 15 watts per head if you use all six and a great supply.

Of course, I have to say Tomar or Sound-Off. Doing close to 120-150 strobe systems per year, they never let me down. I have a 3 month old CSP690 Whelen sitting right beside me that just failed- and it wasn't the first this year. As many know, I am not a Whelen strobe fan at all, other than the fact that the make me alot of $$$ from service!

Most of my installs have been with the Whelen CSP690's. Decent lighting for the price. I did put a nova system in one vehicle. None of them have had any problems so far.

Kurt

SlimBob wrote:It would be most interesting to climb into an unassuming vehicle and bump a switch accidentally and have the car light up like a christmas tree...

That's why you hide them reaally well.
A master key switch somewhere in the vehicle would work to prevent accidental 'flashing' but odds are better that you'll forget the key than have someone accidentally turn them on while driving down the road

Kurt

I learned this morning that I am going to have to put a radio inhibit switch on the car; the mechanics can't keep thier hands to themselves.

Another tip when drilling the holes for the hide-a-way strobes, is to use an actual hole saw bit (the kind they make for putting locks in doors, just 1" diameter), and not one of those wood bits. I've seen quite a few people ruin (crack ) light housings by not using the right tool. A step bit works as well, but results in a lot more plastic residue in the lens. It's ok for colored lenses as you wont see the residue as well if you dont want to clean them out, but with clear lenses the residue sticks out like a sore thumb.

Kurt

u have to to be a damn Moron . to use a Wood bite

KitN1MCC wrote:u have to to be a damn Moron . to use a Wood bite

I know people that have done it and suffered the consequences. Just remember, the right tool for the job.

Kurt

KitN1MCC wrote:u have to to be a damn Moron . to use a Wood bite

No, the damn moron is using a masonry bit.

SlimBob wrote:

KitN1MCC wrote:u have to to be a damn Moron . to use a Wood bite

No, the damn moron is using a masonry bit.

Now THAT I would like to see.

n1pfc wrote:Now THAT I would like to see.

It's not pretty. You wind up with a 3/4" hole with rough, jagged edges... it's really slightly larger than 3/4" after all the damage.. you need a half a ton of caulk to fill the hole.

I agree with tvsrj, PJ, and n1pfc. Strobes look best in turn signals, corner lamps, or even small head lights. . . If I can make a recommendation, use a 90 watt pack to power 4 strobes. When you send 22.5 watts to a strobe. . . it is incredible and I think others would agree. By giving them this much wattage, you allow the strobe to greatly overpower the existing light it is in when it is on. Anything smaller than this just goes downhill.

AltonFF wrote: If I can make a recommendation, use a 90 watt pack to power 4 strobes. When you send 22.5 watts to a strobe. . . it is incredible and I think others would agree

If I set up a system that is just in the corner markers, I usually recomend a 6 head 90W supply. It gives the option to add on 2 more heads if they ever want to down the road without having to buy another supply for just 2 heads.

Kurt

AltonFF wrote:I agree with tvsrj, PJ, and n1pfc. Strobes look best in turn signals, corner lamps, or even small head lights. . . If I can make a recommendation, use a 90 watt pack to power 4 strobes. When you send 22.5 watts to a strobe. . . it is incredible and I think others would agree. By giving them this much wattage, you allow the strobe to greatly overpower the existing light it is in when it is on. Anything smaller than this just goes downhill.

*cough* conversion losses *cough*

*cough* your hilarious *cough*

speaking of install jobs, saw a really horrible one today that I was adding more equipment to (a couple of LED heads)

93 exploder.

They decided to drill through the floor for the strobe cables to run to the back, then run them back inside by drilling yet another hole. The cables aren't even tied up snugly to the frame so if you ran over a branch the whole thing would be toast. Instead of running the main power feed through an exisiting gasketed hole, they just popped the ENTIRE gasket out and ran it behind it. Heck even I could have run the wire through the hole that was there and kept the gasket intact and it wouldn't have taken me any more time than popping the gasket.

They also decided to mount the power supply on the drivers side in the cargo area right to the plastic trim (and huge hole in trim for all wiring. They also broke EVERY SINGLE trim retainer and never bothered to replace them. Wires flailing everywhere back there too. They could have very easily tucked the excess back through the huge hole they cut in the plastic trim.

I should see if I can get some pictures of it and post them. If it were me, I would have put the power supply under the rear seat. There's enough room for it under there even when the seat is down on an exploder.


This one was done by the only commercial installer in the area, and it looks like it was definately done in the 'just get it out of here as fast as possible' mode.

Kurt

n1pfc wrote:This one was done by the only commercial installer in the area, and it looks like it was definately done in the 'just get it out of here as fast as possible' mode.

How much did the guy pay? If someone insists I do it cheap by god I'll do it cheap. I won't do it unsafe but I sure as hell won't take the same time I would as a job that is paying full price. With installations you really get what you pay for.

KG6EAQ wrote:

n1pfc wrote:This one was done by the only commercial installer in the area, and it looks like it was definately done in the 'just get it out of here as fast as possible' mode.

How much did the guy pay? If someone insists I do it cheap by god I'll do it cheap. I won't do it unsafe but I sure as hell won't take the same time I would as a job that is paying full price. With installations you really get what you pay for.

almost $1k for *JUST* the install. He bought his own equipment. 8 hide away heads, 8 head 150W supply, 1 self contained whelen dual head dashmeiser mounted to the ceiling out the rear window, and one code 3 switchbox for the whole thing.

AAKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK....1K for that??? He got the royal shaft!!!

Even at $60an hour its no longer than an 8hr job doing it the right way!!!

n1pfc wrote:almost $1k for *JUST* the install. He bought his own equipment. 8 hide away heads, 8 head 150W supply, 1 self contained whelen dual head dashmeiser mounted to the ceiling out the rear window, and one code 3 switchbox for the whole thing.

Damn at that price I hope it included something to lean on while they bent him over. At 1k I would've expected fully loomed, grommetted, wire tied... the works!